8 June 2010 (4pm)

GHIL-Debates: Public History

The subject of this debate was the contested field of Public History, its strengths, shortcomings, and developments, and the place of history in public life in general. Academic and public historians are increasingly involved in public debates seeking to reach broader audiences and to shape public consciousness through the understanding of the past. Undoubtedly the popularity of history in public life has created political, economic, and cultural opportunities. But it also generated competition and barriers between the professional and the public historians. The GHIL has invited four speakers from Britain and Germany: Franziska Augstein is a journalist for the Süddeutsche Zeitung (Munich) and has written on nineteenth-century Britain; Kathleen Burk (UCL) specialises on the twentieth century, in particular Anglo-American relations; Justin Champion is head of department at Royal Holloway, University of London, and works on early modern British and European history; Peter Mandler (Cambridge) concentrates on British cultural, intellectual, and social history since c.1800.